Journey to the Vault
by TenshiWarrior
Summary: After finding Gortys, the group starts to make it their priority to find the upgrades to Gortys that will ultimately lead them to a Vault known as the Vault of the Traveler. However as they make their way to the Vault, secrets will be revealed and choices will be made. (Sequel to Borderlands: The Gortys Project)
1. Chapter 1: The Start of a Journey

**_Crossovers:_**

Tales from the Borderlands

Sonic the Hedgehog (Humanized)

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni

Overwatch

 _ **NOTE:**_

 _To those that are reading this right now, let me remind you that this will take place during the Tales from the Borderlands game, so for those of you that have not yet watched, or played yourself there will be spoilers ahead. If you don't like stories like this than I'd advise you not to read on ahead. Furthermore, Tales from the Borderlands, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Hyperdimension Neptunia, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, and Overwatch is not owned by me._

* * *

 _Hey kiddos! Here you are back again, to hear more of what this little story has to offer? Alright, but first let's just refresh the memory on what's happened so far for those of you that don't remember, shall we?_

 _You better pay attention and take notes, because if you know me, you know I'm not one to repeat myself. Also for all you kittens that haven't read the **Borderlands: The Gortys Project** … **SPOILERS AHEAD!**_

 _You have been warned._

 _It all started up in Helios where a low life code monkey by the name of Rhys and an old friend of mine, Shadow were on their way to get to the big boys, but they ended up getting screwed over by their new boss Vasquez AKA Wallethead, and they were both demoted to Janitor, much to their displeasure. So they come up with a way to get back at him; they decided to steal his deal which was of a Vault Key._

 _They would've gotten away with it if it wasn't a fake the whole time._

 _Yeah, a fake, can you believe that? Cause I sure as hell can't!_

 _It turns out that, a couple of Pandorans, two con-artist, a criminal who raised the two con artists and a little siren with an alter ego had made plans to originally rip off Wallethead. They just didn't know Rhys, Shadow and their pals were gonna be there, acting like they were picking it up for Wallethead._

 _A lot of shit happens after they find out it's a fake; A vault hunter comes in busting heads ( **Literally** ) a Bandit Lord steals ten million dollars, and they enter a death race, you know the usual stuff that happens on Pandora._

 _In the end they end up losing ten million dollars, since the con-artists mentor I guess, decided to be greedy and try to take the money for himself; He had no idea the case was rigged and set to blow up the second he opened it without Rhysie's friend Iron Abs bio-signature, though the con-artists mentor lives to steal another day since she warned him about it._

 _Should've let it blown up in his face in my opinion._

 _Ultimately though, they end up finding the remains of an old Atlas facility underneath the death race arena, which revealed the Gortys Project and a map to a Vault. At the same time Rhys and Shadow also found out that I, Handsome Jack was still alive, in the flesh._

 _Well not in the flesh, but a hologram, that got stuck in their heads. You should've seen their faces! They were priceless!_

 _Anyway, they barely escape with their lives when moon shots began to fire down on them all the way from Helios, along with rakks and a Rakk Hive chasing after them and they end up getting separated from each other, and wouldn't you know it, old Wallethead ran into us again, but with my help of course we managed to get out of their lickety split._

 _Meanwhile with the con-artists plus one siren, they had or at least one of them had a price on their heads, and apparently, that attracts guns for hire, and a quote on quote retired hunter. You'd think that would be the end to her side of the story, but nope; they happened to run into her girlfriend, that Junk Dealer Janey she met up on Elpis._

 _I should know since I was there._

 _Meanwhile with Rhys and old Iron Abs, they finally came across the Gortys Building where the Gortys Project is ( **Obviously** ). That victory was short lived though._

 _I do admire their consistency but God, they get in more trouble than Princess Peach ( **Whoever that is** )._

 _In the end of all that, they were held at gunpoint, and Rhys had the nerve to trust that con-artist, instead of me, so… I decided to take matters, **into my own hands** …_

 _And that my friends, is where this part of the story begins..._

* * *

- _ **Somewhere on Pandora**_ -

A car drove through the desert abyss of Pandora. Fiona was driving the car, Rhys sat in the passenger's seat, Shadow and Plutia both sat in the back while the Stranger, the one who kidnapped them stood, where there was a machine gun was provided.

"So, that must've been a tough decision." The Stranger said.

"What was he supposed to do trust the psychopath?" Fiona said as she drove.

The Stranger pointed out, "At least the psychopath had a plan."

"He's not wrong." Plutia said to Fiona, "I mean to be honest his plan did work; at least that's what Iris told me."

Fiona sighed, "Okay, fair enough."

The Stranger turned to Rhys, "Why did you decide to choose Fiona? Especially considering, your _**obsession**_ with Jack."

"Rhys here still doesn't think of it as an obsession." Shadow said.

Rhys replied to the Stranger, "I didn't trust Jack. Y'know he's… He's unpredictable at best."

"So what you're saying is, it had less to do with trusting Fiona." The Stranger said.

"Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, no." Rhys replied, "Jack being nuts made an easy call."

"Thanks." Fiona said, "I guess."

"But that didn't matter in the end anyway, since Jack took over my mind and took over most of the Gortys Building." Shadow said to the Stranger.

"Couldn't you stop him from controlling you?" Plutia asked him curiously.

"Yeah." Fiona said, "I mean you said that you were able to fight him when he first controlled you."

"Well no, I couldn't." Shadow replied, "After I fought against Jack, he made sure I wouldn't do that the second time. He just well, caged me in my own head."

The suddenly hit a bump in the road, which caused Fiona to lose control of the car and almost drove off the cliff. Fiona was the first to get out the car, and saw the reason why they had almost fallen over the edge; the tire had popped.

"I don't suppose there's a spare for the spare?" Fiona asked.

Rhys got out of the car, followed by Shadow, Plutia, and the Stranger. "If there is I'm not changing it this time." Rhys said.

"There's no need for that." The Stranger said, "We're close. We can walk from here."

The four of them looked around the area. "Um… Where is here?" Plutia asked.

"And why is it where we _**were**_?" Shadow asked.

The Stranger simply replied, "I'll tell you when I find what we're looking for."

Thus the five of them had started to walk in front of the Stranger. "So, what happened next?" The Stranger asked.

Rhys replied to the Stranger, "Well, things started fine, at first…"

* * *

- _ **Sometime Ago on Pandora; Gortys Building**_ -

" **HAIL TO THE KING BABY!** "

The bots that had circled the four of them before had all stopped and turned; their lights had turned from red to yellow. Fiona, Iris, and Rhys, couldn't help but stare in awe as this happened. The rest of the people behind the now activated shield couldn't help but stare with awe either.

Jack as Shadow turned to Rhys. "Hey, kid, what are you doing, staring off into space?" Jack asked, Rhys and Iris hearing Jack's voice mixed with Shadow's.

"Huh?" Iris asked him, "Aren't you controlling them?"

"Not at the moment no." Jack replied to Iris.

"What the hell do you mean?" Fiona asked him, not even realizing she was talking to Jack.

"Wait a minute…" Rhys said, unaware that his on ECHOeye had turned golden, "You mean to tell me, _**I'M**_ controlling the drones?"

"Well yeah." He said, "With my help of course, but yeah. So let's hurry up and get killing cupcake."

Rhys sighed, "Alright, if you say so."

With the movement of his hand, Rhys commanded the drones to fire upon the shield in front of the group; the drones on the other side fired on the shield as well. Through the shield they saw Mion had found her window of opportunity, and stomped on one of the guy's feet. Sasha saw it as well and basically did the same thing that Mion did. Soon enough they saw them both stuck in a pickle when they tried to go help Vaughn.

" **AW, FUCK A DUCK!** " Iris shouted.

" **WE GOTTA GET UP THERE!** " Fiona shouted to Rhys, " **GET US UP THERE!** "

"Yeah." Jack said; his voice still mixed with Shadows, "Get us up there Rhys."

" **YEAH, YEAH I GOT IT!** " Rhys yelled. Rhys started to move the gigantic magnets right under the platform, causing all of them to stumble. By the time they had gotten up there the shield had finally gave out; the force caused everyone standing on the other side of the shield to fall down on to the floor.

" **YES!** " Jack cheered, while making Shadow kick his leg in the air, " **ALL OF THEM! GET ALL OF THEM! WOO!** "

Vasquez went to reach for the button that controlled Loader Bot. " **OH NO YOU DON'T!** " Rhys shouted, as he made one of the drones fire at him. When he did, his arm was blown off and Vasquez cried out in agony. Mion immediately went straight for the remote which was still in Vasquez's dismembered hand. Some of August's men ran to try and catch her.

" **VAUGHN! THINK FAST!** " Mion shouted throwing the remote over to Vaughn as she started to run. It landed near Vaughn and he picked up the arm of Vasquez, "Gah, fingers!" He said, getting the remote out of the hand. He threw to the floor and said as he crushed the remote with his foot, " **LOADER BOT! GET TO IT BUDDY! ALRIGHT!** "

Loader Bot was back in control. He stood up and gave a thumb up over to Vaughn. "Thanks." He said before charging at one of August's guys.

"My turn." Jack said, making Shadow snap his fingers. The lights on the drones changed from yellow to blue. He made Shadow step down from the platform and he shouted with his voice, " **GET READY TO LICK MY BOOTS YOU RAGING DOUCHEBAGS!** "

The drones started to spread out and fired on August's men, killing most of them, but they were also trying to fire at Sasha who was being chased by August, and Vaughn who had already taken cover. They also tried to fire at Loader Bot as well.

" **HEY THEY'RE ON OUR SIDE!** " Rhys shouted, to Jack who was laughing with the young teens voice.

Iris groaned and said, "You know what? Fuck it."

She used her sword whip to decapitate the head of one of them. She than charged right into the battle.

"Alright enough of this!" Fiona said, jumping in the air kicking one of them in the face; she went to join Iris. Rhys jumped from the platform, a drone came towards him and started to fire at him. " **AH! MORE BULLETS!** " He shouted quickly jumping for cover.

He saw that Jack was making Shadow lean back on the statue. Jack said his voice still mixed with Shadow's, "Don't worry, I left you one pal."

He pointed over to a smaller drone that flew just in front of Rhys. "He's a bit on the dumpy side." Jack said, "But I figured he would be a good fit for ya."

One of August's men came charging at him with a gun in hand; the little drone shot out what appeared to be a dart that made the person get paralyzed on contact with it. "Oh cool…" Rhys said with a bit of disinterest.

Jack saw one of the guys had something that belonged to Shadow's and that was his sword. He made the young teen pick up a pipe and said to Rhys, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some business to attend to."

He walked out from the cover and ran straight for the man that had Shadow's sword. Rhys from behind the cover saw everything that was taken place before him. You could almost swear that he was witnessing a war zone. Bullet's and blood were flying everywhere, bodies fell on top of one another, he didn't really know what to think of the situation right now.

He saw Sasha was in a bit of a tight spot against August. He needed to find a way to help her, but how exactly? The little drone flew right next to him, and that's when Rhys came up with an idea. He bought up a screen with the help of his robotic arm.

"Got get'em Dumpy." He said to the little drone.

Iris had already taken out four of the guys, but already her abilities started to become unresponsive, meaning she was starting to run out of time. "Damn it!" Iris mumbled, "The time was cut shorter for me?"

Iris took cover when the drones started to fire right on top of her. She tried to use her sword, but when she tried, the sword in her hand turned to vapor. " **SHIT!** " She exclaimed as she jumped out of the way. At one point she was hit in the leg with the bullet; It had gone clean through. She cried out in agony and fell on her side.

"Aw crap." She said.

August's men held a gun to her head, and was about to pull the trigger. All of a sudden a blade had gone right through the guy's chest, killing him instantly. The blade was removed and the man fell over. It was revealed to be Shadow or in this case Jack. "That felt… Invigorating!" He said, wiping the blood that had gotten on his face, "God, I missed this so much."

Iris stood up, "And here I thought you weren't a trustworthy guy."

"One thing you should know about me pumpkin." Jack said to her, "I _**always**_ look out for the team."

"Noted." Iris replied, "But, thanks anyway."

"No, problem kiddo." Jack said to her with a smile.

Suddenly he was hit in the head thanks to a drone that flew at a quick pace. He fell down falling unconscious, and she saw Jack as the hologram rubbing the back of his head, "Well that could've gone better." Jack said with his own voice, "Damn, that hurts, I actually felt that. Who knew."

Iris soon felt her energy start to leave her, she fell to her knees, and saw that the marks on her arm and legs were changing back to blue.

"Damn…" She said with a tired voice, "Not now…"

Thus she fell on her side and suddenly there was the little eleven year old girl again with lavender hair.

At that moment with Rhys, he had already taken out most of the guys and drones with the help of the little drone named Dumpy. Dumpy flew just above August and shot one of the electrical darts shocking him on contact. Sasha kicked him on his back and fire at Dumpy, causing the little drone not to fly straight. It flew back to Rhys, and landed on the ground.

" **NO! DUMPY!** " Rhys exclaimed. He picked up the little drone, and saw tha damage. "Aw, poor little guy." He said, he pressed a button and the little drone shut itself down. "I'm taking you with me, for some reason."

Fiona Sasha, and Mion had joined the others; they started to fire at the drones and men that fired at them. "Where are the other two!?" Vaughn asked through the gunfire.

"They're on the other side of the room but we can't get to them!" Fiona said, "Not with all this shit going on!"

"So what do we do now!?" Sasha asked as she fired on the enemies.

"We just gotta get to the door!" Rhys said, "Hopefully we can do that without getting killed!"

Rhys peaked over from the cover and saw the door was pretty much surrounded; he looked to the statue that held the giant globe. "We gotta push down the statue!"

"How do you suggest we do that!?" Fiona had asked him.

Mion had then suggested, "Loader Bot can help out with that!"

"Oh right, duh!" Rhys said before asking Loader Bot, "Hey, can you help us out!?"

"Yes." Loader Bot said, "Lack of faith noted."

After Loader Bot punched away one of August's men, he jumped in the air and landed just behind the statue. He placed both hands on the statues behind.

"Whoa! Buddy!" Rhys said, dumbfounded, "Are you… uh… Your hands are- For the record, not my idea!"

Loader Bot tried to push the statue over but was having difficulty doing so, "Help." He said.

Sasha spotted the ankles and shouted to Fiona, " **COME ON!** " She started to fire upon the ankles as did Fiona. Loader Bot with all of his might, pushed the statue, and at one point it started to crack. With the help of the bullets that were fired upon the statue started to slide, and finally it had fallen over. The globe rolled off just missing the teenage boy and little girl. It rolled to the doors breaking on impact as well as crushing the people that stood in the way.

" **YYYEEESSS!** " Vaughn cheered.

"Bam." Loader Bot said landing behind them.

They all climbed on top of Loader Bot and he flew into the air. As he flew he grabbed Shadow and Plutia from where they were, and with ease they flew straight out of the facility.

As they flew out of the facility but when they saw the outside that there were familiar faces just there armed with a galuet gun on the car. It was Finch and Kroger.

"Um, who the hell is that?" Rhys asked, "Friends of yours Fiona?"

Fiona quickly shouted, " **LOADER BOT! PULL U-!** "

Suddenly a rocket flew towards them, and knocked them clear out of the sky. They all fell off of Loader Bot, and Fiona had accidentally dropped the metal sphere, letting it roll. The sphere slowly rolled, but someone stopped it in it's tracks with a heel. The person stepped towards Fiona; She soon saw that a woman with a scar and black shades was towering over her.

* * *

 _ **VALLORY**_

 _ **THE QUEENPIN**_

* * *

Vallory kneeled down and held out her hand to Fiona. All Fiona did, was give but a glance, before taking her hand; she had helped her to stand up. "Thanks." She said.

"Don't mention it." Vallory said.

Fiona saw snipers up on the rooftops of the buildings. Vallory glanced over at the others that were scattered.

"You the leader of this outfit?" She asked Fiona.

Fiona had replied, "That's right. What of it?"

Vallory smirked at him, "Hmph. Cheeky." She commented.

"There she is." Fiona heard someone say. She saw that it was Finch. "You remember me?" He said.

"Great, these jackasses." Sasha said with her arms crossed.

"So I'm guessing that these are the guys that were talking about?" Mion asked Sasha, brushing the dirt off her jacket.

"Yup. Pretty much." Sasha replied.

Fiona was snapping her fingers, trying to think; she clicked her tongue and finally said to Finch, "No."

Finch growled over at her, and Kroger couldn't help but laugh at that. "Ohoho!" Kroger said, "That is ice cold! Good on you girl! Some nice last words."

" **ALRIGHT THAT'S ENOUGH!** " Finch shouted.

Finch went over to punch her, but was stopped by Vallory. "Calm down Finch." She said.

" **SHE'S THE ONE THAT SHOCKED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!** " Finch yelled.

"Oh yeah she did!" Kroger added.

Finch had begged, "Please, let me at least shoot the hat girl! Just let me-"

"Get back in the truck." Vallory said, "You're being a nuisance."

Finch saw the look she was giving and backed off; Kroger did the same. Fiona had asked Vallory, "What is it you want exactly?"

Vallory didn't reply she glanced at Fiona, than Sasha and then Plutia who was still asleep.

"Fi?"

Fiona held her hand up to Sasha, basically telling her not to do anything sudden. Vallory grinned, "Hmmm… _**I see why you're Felix's favorite**_." This had surprised both her and Sasha; both of their jaws dropped.

"Don't be surprised." Vallory said, "I've known about you two for as long as you've been lifting watches and finding your little siren companion over there. But I'm out ten million bucks, cause someone turned a simple deal, into a complete shit show. _**Someone has to pay for that**_."

August and Vasquez both ran out of the Gortys Building, with their tails between their legs. "Looks like we have a couple new contestants." Vallory said.

"Oh good." Mion said sarcastically, as she let Shadow's head rest on her lap, "Vasquez is still alive."

Vasquez saw Vallory right there. "This isn't good."

August had tried to explain to Vallory, "Okay, okay… I… I know how it looks. Things got a little messed up, but I-"

"Shut up. I'll deal with you later." Vallory said.

"I just wanna say that I had nothing to do with this!" Vasquez said to Vallory.

"Uh, huh." Vallory said to Vasquez, before asking Fiona, "So tell me Fiona, who's to blame here? I want a name."

"Will you calm down Hugo?" August said to Vasquez.

Vasquez said to August, "No, no! I just-Look, I need her to know! She's gonna say it was my fault and it's not!"

Fiona turned to August and Vasquez, ultimately, she had given Vallory a name. "Vasquez." She said to the Queenpin, "He's the one to blame here."

"Hang on, did she say me!?" Vasquez exclaimed.

"Really now?" Vallory asked her.

Fiona nodded her head and said, "None of this wouldn't have happened if he hadn't screwed up the deal."

"She's lying!" Vasquez shouted, "She is lying! Vallory please! You have to believe me! It's not my fault! I know your super pissed, but we've got the Gortys thing, and it's gonna get us a Vault, that is worth more than ten million bucks, just like we told you! Everything is fine! We're fine!"

Valloy went to pick up the sphere that was on the ground, to get a closer look at it. "So this is what all the fuss was about." Vallory said.

She turned back to Vasquez as he said, "Yeah that's it. That's our little money maker."

Vallory said to Vasquez, "Oh… well… _**I guess I don't need you anymore.**_ "

Vasquez widened in shock, "What!? **NO!** " He screamed.

Vallory grabbed the gun he was holding and shot him, killing him in an instant; Everyone jumped when they saw that happen.

" **AH!** " Rhys screamed.

" **JESUS!** " Mion exclaimed.

Vallory laughed and threw down the shotgun so that it was now next to him. She than pulled out her own gun, and pointed right at Fiona's face. "I guess I don't need any of you." Vallory said.

All Fiona did was smiled, before pushing Vallory a good distance away from her. She armed her grenade and threw it up in the air and kicked it as hard as she could. The grenade flew towards her and it flew into her mouth; she fell back right into the truck. As the grenade started to beep, Fiona grinned and said, "Heads up."

Her head blew up and the shades went flying off; the shades flew right over Fiona's eyes as she turned around and smiled.

* * *

 _ **(SHADOW)**_

 _ **Wait a minute, wait a minute! I thought you said it was a flash grenade.**_

 _(FIONA)_

 _Uh… Did I say that?_

 _ **(PLUTIA)**_

 _ **Yeah, you did.**_

 **(STRANGER)**

 **That's not how it works.**

 _(RHYS)_

 _And that's not how it went!_

* * *

- _ **Present-**_

The five of them were walking along the bridge as they were telling the Stranger what had happened. Of course something didn't quite they expected… Again.

Rhys said before making a face, "She put a gun to your face and you went all…"

Plutia couldn't help but giggle at the face Rhys was making.

"Seriously Fiona, I get why Rhys would make something up, but that is just ridiculous even for him." Shadow said to her as he shook his head.

"Keep talking." The Stranger said, obviously annoyed, "The truth this time."

"Alright fine." Fiona said, "But where was I?"

"You were in the middle of this…" Rhys said before making the face again; Plutia laughed again, and Shadow couldn't help but snicker.

"Hey!" Fiona said, "Just so everyone else is clear, I was getting Gortys back!"

* * *

- _ **Sometime Ago on Pandora (Old Haven)**_ -

Fiona stood there at gunpoint, frozen and unsure of what to do exactly. Vallory pulled the trigger and the whole world went in slow motion. Before the bullet could pierce her head, from out of nowhere Athena had jumped right in front of her with her shield in hand and deflected the bullet hitting one of the snipers. Athena shoulder charged Vallory before throwing her shield, hitting all but one of the snipers.

The sniper was about to take the shot, but soon heard over his shoulder.

"Psst. Whatcha you looking at?"

The sniper turned and tried to shoot at the enemy, but all he saw was a blue light before getting shot right in the back. The blue light flashed again, and there stood a girl who was seventeen, and had a device attached to her chest, and back who appeared next to Athena. She had brown hair that was short and spiked, and had orange goggles over her eyes. On her hands he had on black gloves with white armor platings. She had on an orange hoodie with the sleeves rolled up and brown pants that was up to her knees and orange sports bandages were wrapped on her legs, and she had on an armor shoes.

* * *

 _ **TRACER**_

 _ **THE GIRL WHO CAN TELEPORT**_

* * *

All Tracer did was giggle and give a little wave to a very stunned Vallory. Athena threw her shield at Vallory and she fell over hard, dropping the sphere and it rolled over to Fiona; she stopped it with her heel. Athena caught her shield and Vallory got up from the floor; She glared at them with her blind eye and white eye.

Vallory pulled out a knife; August had immediately stopped Vallory from what she was about to do. "Not here!" August said, "We gotta go!"

Vallory looked at August and back to them. She sighed an put away her knife. "This isn't over." She said as she slowly backed up

"You're the one leaving." Athena said, "Looks over to me."

Vallory said to Athena, "No it'll feel much different after this. I'll let you know when it happens."

Vallory climbed into the truck, and it drove off. "Yeah, you better run!" Tracer shouted, before she cheered.

Athena placed her hand on her hip and shook her head. "Tell me…" She said turning to them, "Are you all just… completely stupid!?"

Everyone was pretty much silent at that. All Fiona asked was, "Is… That a trick question?"

"I'm trying to help you…" Athena said before shouting, " **YOU IDIOTS!** "

This left the group dumbfounded. "Oh." Was all that Fiona said.

"That's putting it a bit harshly don't you think?" Tracer asked Athena.

Mion did a double take when she recognized the device on her chest and back. "Tracer?" Mion said with disbelief. Tracer turned to Mion and her eyes were filled with confusion. Mion gently placed Shadow's head under her folded jacket and stood up.

"Tracer, is that really you?" Mion asked her.

"Umm, sorry there." Tracer said, "Do I know you?"

"Don't you remember me?" Mion asked her, "It's me, Mion. You know, Game Master."

At this point, Tracer's jaw dropped. "Mion?" She said questioningly. All Mion did was nod her head. Tracer was stunned and turned to Athena. "I did sat, you would be surprised." Was all Athena said.

Tracer turned back to Mion. They both let out a squeal surprising everyone, and both Mion and Tracer hugged each other as they jumped up and down. " **OH MY GOD!** " Tracer exclaimed, " **I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S REALLY YOU!** "

" **IT'S SO GREAT TO SEE YOU!** " Mion exclaimed before saying, "Then again I didn't think I would."

"I thought the same thing!" Tracer said pulling her into another hug, "I _**never**_ thought I'd see you again!"

Rhys immediately went between them, "Wait, wait, wait." Rhys said, "You know each other?"

"Yeah, is she a friend of yours?" Vaughn asked her.

Mion said pushing herself out of the hug, "Rhys, Vaughn, this is Tracer!" Mion said, "She's one our closets' friends growing up!"

"Really?" Both Rhys and Vaughn said.

Tracer smiled and said, "It's very nice to meet you both, Rhys and Vaughn was it? I know Mion said my name already, but I'll say it again, so you can memorize it. My name is… is…"

Tracer lost her words when she heard a familiar groan, and a familiar sit up from the ground. Shadow rubbed his eyes and the back of his head. "Ow… That hurts…"

Tracer walked over to him; being very stunned by this. Shadow had taken notice of her presence when she kneeled right next to him. He glanced over her but recognized who she was when he saw the familiar device attached to her chest.

"Tracer?" Shadow said.

Tracer smiled, and tears started to come out of her eyes, "My god…" She said, with her voice cracking, "It's you… It's really you."

After the dust had settled, everyone was going pretty much doing there own thing. Plutia had already awoken from her slumber and was filled in on what had happened thanks to Fiona and Sasha and of course Iris. The three sisters were now talking to Athena, who wasn't really happy in the situation she was in.

"This is easily the most of annoying contract I've ever taken." Athena said, "At least if it was an assassination I'd have the pleasure of a kill at the end of it."

"Oh, well, I'm so sorry for the inconvenience." Sasha said sarcastically.

"Can I ask, who hired you?" Plutia asked Athena curiously.

Athena turned and replied, "A man named Felix." The three sisters were shocked. "Felix?" Plutia asked, "He hired you, really?"

"Yes." Athena said, "I normally don't divulge that kind of information but… he wanted you to know. He also said to tell you he's sorry."

"Um…" Fiona said before asking, "What did he hire you for exactly?"

Athena said to Fiona and Sasha in particular, "Felix wanted me to pass down some knowledge… To _**mentor**_ you. To help you survive. He felt you two had some untapped potential. He was hoping you can pass it down to Plutia."

"You couldn't have told us this earlier?" Sasha asked.

"Well it's not exactly you yell down the alley when you've got Vallory's goons, running around." Athena told her, "My work requires some discretion."

"Oh discretion? When you say that, are you referring to the part to the part where you were chasing us through Hollow Point. trying to behead us with your shield?"

"If I wanted to behead you, it would've happened."

"Woah, don't be mad at us that we got away."

"We'll… See how this goes." Fiona had ultimately said; she turned to Sasha, "Keep an eye on her Sasha."

"It would be better not say that stuff in front of the person your talking about." Athena said to them.

"It is really rude." Plutia said to her sisters.

"Oh is this part of the mentoring?" Fiona asked Athena, "I didn't know we were starting already."

"Uggghh…" Athena groaned, "Look, I know you three have been through a lot, but I assure you, I'm here to help. And I don't anticipate that it'll be very long, because when I feel that the contract is done, I'll be out of your lives. So let's… Let's just get through this."

"Well welcome aboard than!" Plutia said with a smile.

"Thank you." Athena said.

She turned over to Vaughn, who was poking Vasquez's body. "So uh…" Athena said awkwardly, "Is he all right? Cause that's… Not normal."

"Well that's Vaughn for you." Sasha said.

"He's okay." Plutia said, "Although I think that's his first dead body."

"Yeah, well, up close anyway." Fiona said.

"Lucky him." Athena said with sarcasm.

"He's just… Going through some stuff." Fiona said.

Fiona then got his attention, " **HEY!** "

Vaughn got startled and dropped the stick he was using to poke the body. "Gah! I wasn't doing anything I swear!" Vaughn said.

"Sure you weren't." Fiona said, "Just don't do that again."

At that moment with Shadow, Mion, and Tracer, they both explained to Tracer what they've been doing the whole time, how they got where they were; even the fact that an AI of Jack was inside his head. Tracer took in every word that was said by the two of them.

"I see." Tracer said, "So that's what happened. Jack actually saved your lives. I didn't really expect that from him."

"I had the exact same thought." Mion said, "But that's what happened."

"Well, me believing it or not." Tracer said turning to Shadow, "I still can't believe that your still here… After all this time!"

"Neither can I." Shadow said, "When Mion said, that everyone was gone, I thought that meant you were gone too."

"I thought the same thing myself." Tracer said to him, "But you know it actually feels good to be wrong once in awhile."

"Is there any else still alive?" Shadow asked her, "Anyone at all?"

Tracer sighed sadly before replying, "There are but it's little in numbers. And as far as I know it, they're up on Elpis living it up in Concordia. They said being on Pandora held too many memories of the good old days. After… after the _**Final Job**_ they just left; they each said they had to move on from it."

Both Shadow and Mion sighed with relief, "At least it's comforting to know that some of our friends are still out there alive and well." Mion said.

Shadow asked Tracer, "So what exactly have you been doing? Other than the change in your hairstyle?"

Tracer smiled and replied, "Well, for a while I've been helping out our good old friend Scooter, and of course Janey and Athena over there. She actually asked me to come on this job with her, and said that I was in for a surprise, and she was certainly right about that."

"Yeah, well no kidding. I mean you saw us." Mion said, earning laughter from the the group.

Tracer looked over to Rhys and Vaughn, "I can't believe you actually made friends up at Helios. And here I thought they were all assholes."

"We had the same thought for awhile until we met those guys." Shadow said, "They actually looked out for us while we were up there."

"So I'm guessing that…" Tracer said awkwardly, "They don't know about the life you had before when you lived on Pandora, or that matter _**what you are**_?"

Shadow shook his head in reply, "You know me Tracer. I don't like to get personal." He said.

"I know." She said, "But they have a right to know. You've already known them for this long so-"

"I said the same thing to him, after we worked with them for a month." Mion said, "But he's already made up his mind in it."

"I didn't say I made up my mind, I said I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to tell them." Shadow said, "You know how dangerous it is for me to tell others about my life, and especially what I am. Under my circumstance I have to make sure that others that are around me aren't put in danger because of it."

"You were just fine with telling everyone else on our team what you are though." Tracer said, "So what's different from them?"

Before Shadow could answer that, they heard Rhys shout out, " **HEY! I THINK I GOT SOMETHING!** "

They all went over to Rhys who had the Gortys core. "Whatcha got?" Sasha asked him.

Rhys replied, "I don't know but, I-I-I found out there's an 'on' button somewhere."

"You've been looking at that thing for 20 whole minutes, and you just found out about it?" Fiona said to him. All Rhys did was shrugged.

"It's not my fault, it was very small!" Rhys said.

"Excuses." Shadow said.

Fiona rolled the sphere over and found the button Rhys was talking about. She pressed the button and it started to float.

" ** _INITIATING GORTYS START UP SEQUENCE._** " A computer voice said, " ** _ENERGY CHASSIS REQUIRED FOR VAULT OF THE TRAVELER PROTOCOL. LOADING COORDINATES FOR ENERGY CHASSIS. GORTYS ACTIVATED. HAPPY BIRTHDAY_.** "

The Gortys core flew to the ground, and with a click, a little robot, with bright blue eyes tiny metal hands had suddenly popped out, surprising everyone. The little robot looked around, and said with a friendly little smile, "Hi! Wow, hey! It's really great to meet you all."

* * *

 _ **GORTYS**_

 _ **GREAT TO MEET EVERYONE; TRUST ME SHE'S OLDER THAN SHE LOOKS**_

* * *

Everyone still stood there very dumbfounded by the fact that they were staring with a little robot.

" **AWWWW!** " Plutia said with a kitten face, "So cute!"

"She is so cute!" Mion said with a kitten face as well.

"Why thank you!" Gortys said, while smiling, "And you both are very pretty."

Plutia and Mion both couldn't help but melt to that all the more. "Well…" Shadow said, "This is definitely unexpected."

"Yeah, I was expecting something… Different?" Rhys said.

"I'm sorry if your disappointed." Gortys said.

"No it's not that-" Rhys said.

Fiona cut him off when she said, "You are the frigging cutest robot I've ever seen." Fiona said.

Gortys said to Fiona, "Thanks! You're not so bad yourself, meow."

Fiona chuckled at that. Vaughn seemed to have finally processed on what's going on, "Ooohhh… It was a robot this whole time." He said.

"Yes I am." Gortys said to Vaughn.

"That makes sense." Vaughn said, before asking, "Does it make sense?"

"It works for me." Tracer said with a smile. All Shadow and Mion did was just give Tracer a look and she looked at them questioningly. "You haven't changed at all haven't you?" Shadow asked her with a smirk.

Gortys noticed the Loader Bot there. "Oh cool, you've got another robot!" She said, "It's very nice to meet you. How is your day going?"

"It's a mixed bag." Loader Bot replied.

"That's great!" Gortys said, "Variety is so important."

Shadow asked her, "Hey, Gortys?"

"Oh, hello." Gortys said to Shadow with a smile.

"Do you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?" He asked her.

"No I don't mind at all." Gortys said, "Let's see… Where do I begin…?"

Gortys thought about it, but soon enough she started to explain, "Okay, I don't know every detail but I was created by Atlas as a last ditch effort to get to the riches of a Vault to get a leg up on those Hyperion guys."

Rhys smiled and said, "Well we're still number one."

Gortys continued, with her explanation, "Atlas had facilities all over Pandora working on the pieces of me to get it done faster. But then that lady over there made it a little more difficult to assemble by killing every Atlas employee."

Of course Gortys was referring to Athena. Rhys had asked Gortys, "How many more pieces are there?"

"I have no idea." Gortys said, before a compass appeared right above her head, "But the next piece we need is… Uhhh… Ummm…."

The holographic compass pointed to in the direction, "That way!"

The group turned to each other and smiled, all of them thinking the same thing.

"This should be interesting." Fiona said, "Lead the way Gortys."

"Alright!" Gortys said cheerfully.

She started to move with her single wheel and the way but the whole group when they saw Gortys grab Vasquez's foot and tried to drag him. "Everybody up and at'em!" Gortys said, "Come on slowpoke! Time's a wastin!"

Rhys rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, "Um… Gortys?"

"Hmm?" Gortys said, still trying to drag Vasquez.

"He is… Um…" Rhys said, trying to think of what he was going to say.

Shadow immediately stopped him, seeing as how Gortys was like a child. "We shouldn't disturb him right now." He said to Gortys.

"Huh? Why?" Gortys asked him, letting go of his foot.

"He's sleeping, and he really needs his rest." Shadow said to Gortys.

Fiona had added, "Yeah, he's probably going to be sleeping for awhile."

Gortys seemed to understand, "Oh, okay." Gortys whispered, "Oh gosh… We'll let him sleep than."

"It's probably for the best." Fiona said.

Satisfied with that, they all proceeded to the caravan. With Fiona at the wheel, and Loader Bot up on the roof since he couldn't fit. As they drove out of Old Haven, Gortys had but one thing to ask.

"Is there a radio on this thing?"

 _ **(Opening Theme: Cry for the Truth by Michi TV Size**_ )


	2. Chapter 2: Choices

( _ **Opening Theme: Cry for the Truth by Michi TV Size**_ )

- _ **Sometime Ago on Pandora**_ -

About two weeks had already gone by and so far they were making progress to get to where the Gortys upgrade was exactly. Each of them, Gortys included would sometimes take turns on driving the caravan, since the ride was longer than expected. Occasionally they would stop to spend the night, or just to stretch their legs since let's face it, no one wants to be cooped up in a caravan for so long. They would tell a little bit more about themselves to each other but Shadow still kept everything that was personal to himself like always.

Which would often disappoint Rhys, Vaughn, Fiona, Sasha and Plutia especially. Mion and Tracer on the other hand were the opposite from that; they were more than happy to tell a little bit about themselves with any chance they got.

It was already night among the frozen plains and almost everyone in the caravan were asleep. Sasha and Vaughn slept on the couch, while Mion, Shadow, Tracer and Plutia slept on the floor with sleeping bags that were provided. Fiona drove the caravan, while Athena leaned back against the wall with her arms crossed. Rhys stood in the back since he couldn't find himself sleeping. In fact for the almost the whole two weeks, he couldn't find himself sleeping at all, not even once.

Everything just seemed to bother him; with all that's been going on. Suddenly they have a bandit lord hunting them down, and possibly Hyperion as well, all of them wanting him and his friends dead, and he doesn't know if he should say if it's worse, but now him and Shadow both have stuck in there heads, an AI of Handsome Jack. He didn't know what to think anymore.

Speaking of Handsome Jack, he had suddenly appeared to Rhys as he does occasionally. "Hey there kid." He greeted, "Just checking in. I don't want to distract you from your victory laps now that Vasquez is dead. I'm also making sure of something… You haven't by any chance told Athena about me yet, have you?"

Rhys was a bit confused by his question. "Um… No." He replied, "Why do you ask?"

Jack sighed with relief before saying, "Because, if you do tell her about me, she'll cut your head off before you have a chance to explain yourself!"

Rhys's eyes widened in disbelief; Jack could tell by the look on his face that he had his doubts about that. "Seriously I'm not exaggerating!" Jack said to him, "The chick is crazy!… Plus she really, _**REALLY**_ , doesn't like me."

Rhys seemed to have taken his word for it, much to Jack's satisfaction. "Okay look kiddo-" Jack started to say, but Rhys cut him off, "Stop calling me kiddo! Please!"

Athena had taken notice that Rhys was just talking to himself; although, obviously to her it seemed like he was talking to someone.

Curious she had asked him, "Who are you talking to?"

Rhys turned to her and stuttered. "Umm-uh-" He said, "Ha-"

All of sudden his robotic hand started acting on his own and slapped him at least five times across the face. He had realized that Jack was the one who did it; He gave him a look.

"Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry." Jack said, "But I really mean it, she's really gonna kill us. Hey what do you say, we go up the roof, huh sport? The nice warm, Vault Hunter free roof."

Athena gave Rhys a quizzical look, and was about to ask him something else; but all Rhys said to her before she could even speak was, "I uh-Suddenly need to go to the roof." And with that Rhys climbed up the ladder that was provided in the caravan. As Rhys opened the hatch and climbed on up, Jack appeared up on the roof.

"Listen you're probably gonna die, right?" Jack said to him, as he watched Rhys close the hatch, "And I'm not talking about Athena here, I'm just saying like in general. General sort of impending death."

Rhys sat with his legs close to his chest, "Okay…" Rhys said, understanding the situation to why Jack sounded a bit mad, "Is this about you not taking over my cybernetics?"

"Yeah! It's about that!" Jack said to Rhys angrily, "You trusted that floozy with a flashbang over your old pal Jack! I'm taking a little lack of trust here pal. What's going on? Tick tock… Why did you go with what's-her-nuts-plan instead of me huh? Your brain fall outta your head?"

"For your information, Fiona had a plan in mind that didn't involve shooting my friends!" Rhys said to him.

"Yeah?" Jack said to Rhys, "And that plan was what exactly?"

"Uh… Throw a flashbang and then sort of… Run in a random direction?"

"That's what I thought. You're lucky I took over Shadow's cybernetics and took over the drones, otherwise your buddy, or his buddy Mimi would've ended up being a coat rack!"

"Why do you care so much about what happens to us? To Shadow and Mion? I mean what exactly is your relationship with them?"

"Number one, that's none of your business, number two, I love your skull okay? It's shapely, well coiffed, I live in there. Well technically I live in both you and Shady's head, since I don't know which one of you will take me with you if either of you dies, trust me that's the last thing that I want. Seriously you put too much trust in Fiona's random improvising!"

Jack took a deep breath, calming down a bit. When he did, he said to Rhys, "Look, you don't trust me, I get it. But let me spoil the big secret about surviving on Pandora for ya. It's not about who's got the bigger gun, it's about teamwork. More than that, it's about compromise. If your old pal Vasquez had just given you and Shady the promotion, he wouldn't be dead now would he?"

"This coming from the dead guy." Rhys said.

Jack was silent at that, "Toche." Was all he said. He sat down and let his foot rest on the opposite leg, as if he was actually sitting on a chair. "Actually you know what?" Jack said, "Let's talk about that for a second. You know why I died?"

Loader Bot and Gortys were up on the roof as well, and were apparently listening to Rhys talk to himself since they couldn't see Jack. "Why is that guy talking to himself?" Gortys asked Loader Bot.

"He's going through some things." Loader Bot replied.

Rhys didn't have time to answer Jack's question, when Jack answered for him, "Because I didn't work with the people I didn't trust. If I'da just thrown stock options at the Vault Hunters instead of bullets. I'd be on a beach right now, doing disturbing graphic things with the local ladies. And if you can't learn to work with the people you wanna punch in the throat, then well-You're gonna die. With nothing but your pride and a fat hole in your sternum."

Rhys thought about what Jack was saying; he didn't want to admit it out loud, but he did point out a few things. About surviving on Pandora in all. Even though it's only been two weeks he could clearly see that Jack was indeed right about it.

"Well, if I'm gonna die." Rhys said, "I might as well die as the good guy."

"Oh is that so?" Jack said to him, "Cause' if you want, I can overload the neurons to your brain right now."

"Uh-uh, nononononono…"

Jack laughed at that, "I'm, I'm just kidding-I'm just messing with you, I can't do that. Or can I? Nah, I can't do that. I'm just being a dick. You wanna live, that's good, that's good."

Rhys looked off to look at the view as the caravan still drove. "I'm detecting some tension here." Jack said, "Which is a bummer. We should be pals, like Shady and me. You know I'm actually… I actually see a lot of myself in you."

This had surprised Rhys, when he heard Jack say that.

Jack continued to say, "I-I know I've done some kinda ehhh things, but we're a team here kiddo. And you can even ask Athena, or hell, even Shady… I _**always**_ look out for my team. So I'm just asking you to trust me here."

Rhys- _Not believing that he was actually saying this_ \- had said to Jack, "I guess we can work together. _**For now**_."

Jack grinned at this, "You see? That wasn't so hard. I won't let you down kid, uh, Rhys. _**You just made a pal for life**_."

Rhys said awkwardly, "That… Sounded bad."

"Yeah, I just realized that sounded kinda ominous, like I was gonna kill you or something." Jack said awkwardly, "I didn't actually mean it… _**That way**_. My bad, but hey we're pals! Everyone's back!"

Jack snapped his fingers, realizing something, "Which reminds me, since we're gonna be stuck together with each other for the foreseeable future, I kinda wanna know where the hell we're going."

"You already know where we're going, we're following-"

"No, not like that general idiot. What is it you want out of all of this? Cause I wanna help you get it."

"...I… Come to think of it, I'm not really sure honestly. After all that's happened I haven't really thought about it."

Jack stayed silent; just thinking for a moment. He had said, "Well, when you've thought about it, just let me know, and I'll help you get it."

Jack stood up from where he sat, "Welp, this has been a good little talk. Maybe we'll talk later, oh and by the way, sorry about almost killing your friends, and taking over Shadow's head. See ya!"

With that Jack disappeared, leaving Rhys alone with Gortys and Loader Bot. Rhys couldn't help but wonder… Did he make the right choice in trusting Jack?

* * *

- _ **Present; Somewhere on Pandora**_ -

The group walked through the plains of the desert, as the sun had started to set over the horizon. They stopped in a certain area, and started to look around the place. "I didn't realize you two were getting all chummy." Fiona said to Rhys, "Are your best friends all just a bunch of assholes?"

Rhys didn't answer her question; hell he didn't turn to her to look her in the eye, the only thing she got was silence in reply. Fiona turned to look the otherway, honestly not knowing what else to say to him.

Before they could continue to walk, Shadow had said, "Hey, guys, can we just call it a night? Plutia's getting tired and we're not gonna get anywhere when it's dark."

Plutia let out a yawn and rubbed her eyes, "Mmm, so sleepy…" She groaned.

The Stranger looked, and couldn't help but agree. "Yeah, alright."

They had set up a fire to keep themselves warm from the cold. Rhys, Fiona, and Plutia slept while Shadow along with the Stranger stayed up, taking first watch. All Shadow did to pass the time was draw in the sand, and look to the night sky. There was nothing but silence around them; the only thing that was heard was the sound of skags howling in the distance.

"I'm curious." The Stranger finally said to the young teen, "What do you have to say in all this?"

"Huh?" Shadow said, "What do you mean?"

The Stranger clarified for him, "From what Rhys described, Jack seemed to have put a lot of trust in you, even if at times you didn't trust him. So what do you have to say it?"

Shadow heaved a deep sigh, "Now that's something a lot of people don't tend to ask me when they first hear about it. They'd just assume I treat Jack, like how everyone else treated him when he was alive."

"You knew him, when he was alive, and even after he died, you knew him as an AI."

"I didn't even realize I've known him for that long. I'll admit this one thing, he and I both thought alike of what we thought of what Pandora needed, but we had different ways of getting what we wanted, so I'll just leave it at that."

Shadow turned to the Stranger; Even though he couldn't see his face, he could already tell what he was thinking. He leaned back against a rock and asked him, " _ **You know who I was before I worked in Hyperion?**_ Don't you?"

The Stranger nodded his head, and replied, "I've heard stories about you. How Bandit Lords feared you, and how you helped people. You also had _**plenty of chances**_ to kill Jack yourself, and yet every single time you came across one another, you _**chose**_ not to do it."

"I chose not to kill him with good reason."

The Stranger sat across from him, using a rock as a chair, "I'll be the judge of that. Tell me what happened, when they found out about you and your life."

"Do I have a choice?" Shadow asked, before saying, "While we were on our way to get Gortys's upgrade, the caravan broke down. And I don't know if it was coincidence or not, but… The caravan broke down, near the place I once called home…"

( _ **Ending Theme: Asterisk War Ending 1-I'm Waiting for the Rain**_ )


End file.
